A holiday some time in the planning

Scandinavia

It was back in August 2019 that we decided we would visit Scandinavia on holiday, in that year, when we were still on our trip to Alaska and Hawai'i, I'd begun to draft some notes for a trip planned in 2020, I suspect it doesn't surprise anyone that this didn't happen!!

That draft document, an update of which was dated 8th September 2019, has some relevant ideas:

• Oslo to Bergen – (6h 32m – Direct)
• Bergan to Olden – (5h 55m by Bus – Direct)
• Olden to Trondheim (7h 34m 3:34 by Bus to Otta then 3hr train to Trondheim) 
• Trondheim to Stockholm (11h 15m by Train, change at Storlien)

Though at the time the plans covered the whole of Scandinavia and some other parts of Northern Europe - indeed most of the list formed the holiday we took two years ago - Europe 2023, but it left Norway unvisited, which became the inspiration for this holiday.

 

Deciding where to visit

So, the question becomes how to choose where to visit in Norway?

Oslo and Bergen were obvious places to visit as the largest two cities in the country. 

The capital, Oslo, seemed a must given its influence on the rest of the country, 20% of the total population of Norway live in the City. 

Bergen seemed to make sense too as it was one of the key cities in the Hanseatic League and historical entity we had tracked in recent years from Boston, Lincolnshire and Kings Lynn and Norwich and on to Riga, Tallinn, Cologne and Hamburg. 

Another must was Olden, set on the southern shore of the Nordfjorden (North Fjord). Why a 'must'? Because Drew [aka the co-pilot] has always maintained a Viking heritage based on the shaky premise that his surname and the name of this village are the same! So, how could we possibly miss out on it.

Given the location of Olden, the next big town we could visit was Trondheim. In addition to its location Trondheim has the additional attraction of its ancientness. Not only was it the Viking capital from 997 onwards, but from 1030 until the Lutheran reformation in 1537 was the location of the Shrine of St. Olav, Norway's patron saint. Until the reformation the shrine was famous throughout Europe with many pilgrims coming from all over the continent.

Having started with this basis for our travels and with plenty of time left, we decided it would be exiting to travel north of the Artic Circle. We had been within 190 miles of the Circle while in Fairbanks, Alaska, but hadn't managed to get further North, but here in Norway we have the chance. This visit seemed to good a chance to venture there, so we set our minds to Tromsø which turns out to be 220 miles north of the circle. It seems very exciting to be heading there - but we shall see.

The other stops on our journey - Bodø on the way north and Kiruna on the way south were informed by the long distances involved, but, as I'm sure we will see, both have their charms.  

By mid-November 2024, two weeks after we got back from last year's holiday in Australia, we confirmed our general plans and booked the first item on the holiday - the flight from Heathrow to Oslo (and back from Stockholm) with SAS.

Reflecting on our plans

On our holiday in 2023 we visited 11 cities in 23 days, it was a wonderful trip, but felt very, very busy. In 2024, as well as travelling halfway around the world we again did an amazing amount of travelling 13 different places in a longer 30 days, again it was a busy time. So much so that I concluded my last blog post of that holiday saying: "PS - Note to self, build some downtime into the next holiday to keep the blog up to date!!" and it feels that having 8 destinations in 24 days will I hope achieve this outcome. We shall see!

Detailed Planning

Of course, there was much more detailed planning to do, now that the framework had been set - more about that in tomorrow's post.